Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Teenage tutors inspire young pupils, learn life skills in DPS program

There is nothing better than seeing tutoring programs that help children reach their potential. Combine this with quality high school students who serve as quality role models and everyone wins. That is the case at Clark Prepartory Academy in Detroit. Students are making academic progress as part of a company investing in the students at the academy in a variety of ways.

Detroit Free Press Education Writer

Anna Hubert, 17, a senior at East English Village Prep Academy
punches in for her job as a tutor at Clark Elementary School, a program
sponsored by Lear. / REGINA H. BOONE/Detroit Free Press file photo

Keon Thompson couldn't take his eyes off the sheet of paper that
had his latest math test results. Beaming with a cherubic smile, he
showed the assistant principal his test.
And the computer lab teacher.

And the girl sitting next to him.
Keon,
who had a C- in math last year, had received a 100% on his test last
week. The seventh-grader at Clark Preparatory Academy on Detroit's east
side said he thinks he's one step closer to his goal of becoming a
builder or mechanic due, in part, to the high school tutors who help him
twice a week as part of a $1.5-million, three-year investment by Southfield-based Lear, a leading global automotive supplier.
"I'm always building stuff," Keon said, grinning widely. "Requires a lot of math."
Matt
Simoncini, the CEO of Lear, attended Clark as a child and wanted to
help DPS. He said his 14-year-old daughter listens to and looks up to
honor-roll high school students who tutor her. So this summer, he
pitched the idea to DPS emergency financial manager Roy Roberts, suggesting a program that would pay high schoolers to tutor Clark's middle schoolers.
Since
then, 125 students from nearby East English Village Preparatory Academy
have been trained. They take a school bus to Clark over the course of
four days per week to tutor middle school students such as Keon for $8 per hour. Simoncini said it benefits students on both sides of the relationship.
"The
high school kids effectively have what is a part-time job and
motivation to be a good student because they have to maintain good
grades and attendance," he said. "Grade school kids get role models and
one-on-one help."
And the goal is to get other companies and schools involved.
"We
hope we can prove that this works and use the program as an example for
other organizations to take on in other parts of the city," Simoncini
said.
During a recent tutoring session, assistant principal
Murleen Coakley walked around the computer lab as tutoring groups
reviewed lessons online. The tutoring already has made a difference, she
said.
She points to a boy who has "found his spark" in math after
getting one-on-one tutoring. Keon's 100% score on a weekly assessment
also is proof the program making a difference.
"We're able to see if there's actual growth," she said.
The
tutoring program aims to raise student achievement and support
successful transitions to high school for Clark students who have low
math scores. In 2011, 3% of Clark's sixth-graders scored proficient in
math on the statewide MEAP test, 4% of seventh-graders scored proficient
and no eighth-graders scored proficient.
As the tutoring program grows, other subjects will be added.
Lear
has become the kind of business partner that every school dreams of.
Besides bankrolling the tutoring program, Lear has provided extra
unforeseen perks: more than 30 computers for the tutoring computer lab
and the school-wide computer lab, electrical and networking upgrades and
a tractor-trailer load of office furniture, said Steve Wasko, a
spokesman for DPS. The company also paid for air-conditioning in the
tutoring computer lab.
"When you get in a school and start to see the needs, you get engaged and feel compelled to address them," Simoncini said.
For the high school students, the program provides leadership skills and the chance to be a positive influence.
During
a recent session, Mia Pugh , 17, a senior, took her hand and placed it
over the hand of a special education student to help him write the
correct answer to a problem.
And Husani Webb, 16, a junior,
congratulated the students he tutors for correctly working out a problem
that involved subtracting negative numbers.
"You did pretty good today, Louis," he said, to 12-year-old Louis McMillan, a seventh-grader. "I'm proud of you."
The
high school students participate in the program as part of a new
elective at their school -- leadership development. Four days a week,
five hours per day, groups of high school students who have passed a
math assessment and taken training participate in the tutoring. Each
student spends two hours a week -- over two days -- at Clark and the
other days they are with their class assessing and planning tutoring
sessions.
The students "punch in" for each session by pressing their fingerprint to a high-tech time clock that Lear bought.
Marie
Woodson, a retired Clark teacher Lear hired to monitor the tutoring
sessions, said the high schoolers also get essay-writing practice
because they write journal entries about each session. And they learn
work ethics.
"They have to be on time for work," she said. "The bus is not going to wait for them."
Brandy
Robertson, 18, a senior, takes probability and statistics class at East
English Village High, and at Clark she tutors a student who is two
grade-levels behind in math.
She said she gets satisfaction from helping and mentoring her student.
Asked what the middle school kids get out of the tutoring, she smiled and said, "Me!"
"When I was in middle school, I would've liked for somebody older from another school to have helped me," she said. Contact Chastity Pratt Dawsey: 313-223-4537 or cpratt@freepress.com